tsukubafandomcom-20200213-history
Why Tsukuba Needs a Wiki
What is Tsukuba? For most foreigners, Tsukuba is a transient community where they stay for only a year or two before moving on to somewhere else. Most of these people don't speak Japanese and don't have access to local information. Thus the need for information in English or other languages is enormous. What help exists? At the moment, there are already tons of resources available for foreigners in Tsukuba. Many books, pamphlets and web sites about Tsukuba already exist. What problems are there with existing information? There are several problems with the existing sources of information: They rapidly get old For example, a great list of information for newcomers was provided by Eleanor Olds Batchelder only a couple of years ago. However, with the rapid changes in the centre of Tsukuba with the coming of the new train station, a lot of the information in Eleanor's list is already out of date. Making information takes time For one person, organizing information about a city of Tsukuba's size is a full time job. Updating takes time Printed books are difficult to update. Keeping web sites up to date is also tough work. No single person knows enough to do a really good job There is so much information that needs to be included, about all manner of things that people need to know about, like health, restaurants, pets, that no one person can master it all. People leave Because this is such a transient community, most of the people who wrote the guide books to Tsukuba ten or twenty years ago no longer even live here. How does a Wiki help? A Wiki solves all of these problems. Wikis are fast Wiki is actually a Hawaiian word meaning fast. Anyone can edit the Tsukuba Wiki. Updating is easy Anyone can update the Wiki instantly. Everyone can help If everyone living in Tsukuba contributes even a little to this Wiki, it will soon be the best information resource available anywhere about this town. Wikis don't get old As soon as an entry starts looking old, someone can easily update it. This is the complete opposite of a printed book which just gets older and older, and less and less relevant. Wikis don't take up time Because everyone is cooperating together, the Wiki doesn't end up being a great burden for just one or two people. Wikis don't depend on any one person Even if some of the contributors leave Tsukuba or leave Japan, the Wiki can be continued by new people, without the burden of having to start something from the beginning. OK, Wikis are great! What can I do? You can do anything, including reorganizing the information and adding stuff about whatever you think is important. Get started today with your favourite article. I want to help but my English is no good Never mind! What is important is to get out the useful information about Tsukuba, not writing perfect English. Write something and let someone else edit it into good English for you. I have an idea for Tsukuba Wiki, what do you think? Don't talk about it, do it! Is it OK to add to someone else's pages? YES!!!! If you have something useful to say, please go ahead and say it. You don't need permission. Most of these pages are "stubs", placeholders put there as starting points for you to add to. If you do make a mess, other people can probably sort it out. Don't be surprised if your edits are rapidly modified. The only thing you should be cautious about is deleting other people's information. Please don't delete stuff which might be useful for someone. Please only delete stuff which clearly doesn't belong here or is obviously wrong. Category:Tsukuba Wiki